Survivor: San Juan del Sur, also known as Survivor: San Juan del Sur — Blood vs. Water, is the 29th season of Survivor. This season revived the format of Survivor: Blood vs. Water, in which pairs of loved ones were split to create the initial tribes. However, San Juan del Sur departed from the precedent set by Blood vs. Water in one respect, as it featured only new contestants. The season saw one quit and has to date produced three returning players for subsequent seasons.

Originally, the season was set to have a 20-player cast. However, 48 hours prior to the start of filming, a member of a pair of sisters (now known as So Kim and Doo Kim) failed one of the final medical examination. Unable to find a replacement pair of the same gender composition in time, production was forced to start the game with the remaining nine pairs, ostensibly having an uneven 10:8 ratio between males and females.[4] The healthier of the sisters, So Kim, was brought back for the next season. A similar case occurred back in Survivor: Fiji, where Mellisa McNulty was pulled from the game due to last-minute panic attacks.[5] Former contestant and Survivor After Show host Parvati Shallow went to the production site as part of the press who conducted interviews to the contestants and wrote an online journal about her experience.[6]

In an interview with Dalton Ross from Entertainment Weekly after the Cagayan finale, Jeff Probst initially stated that Redemption Island was slated to be in play. However, after the interview, last minute changes were discussed by Jeff and the production crew to further innovate the upcoming season. In a more recent interview with Ross for EW Morning Live, which was held live on set, Probst revealed that they decided to shelve Redemption Island, which potentially misled the contestants, who were yet to be flown on location and listened to the prior interview. The set that was supposed to be the Redemption Island Arena would be rehashed for Exile Island, a twist long-unused since Survivor: Tocantins.[7] Jeff teased:

“

We all started looking at it, and it started feeling like—I don't know. I don't know if Redemption Island is the right thing. And it would be the safe thing to do because we knew it worked. I got the cards out and started looking at all the players in my living room and just started imagining: What else could you do with people who love each other that would really make it difficult? And we came up with an idea, and everybody puts their two cents in, and we formed a new idea. Instead of Redemption Island, we decided: We have this arena being built. What if instead of that, we use it for something else, something that will make Blood vs. Water a little more interesting. A little more bloody.

On August 13, 2014, editors temporarily halted the post-production process of the season and went on strike due to CBS preventing them to unionize which would give them pension plans and health benefits similar to other to the workers in Mark Burnett's other shows. The next day, an agreement was settled, and the editors concerned were allowed to unionize and went back to work, thus keeping the premiere to air on schedule.[9][10]

Twists/Changes

Blood vs. Water: Nine pairs of castaways, each with a pre-existing relationship, will compete against each other for the million dollar prize. The pairs will be separated, assigning each member to opposite tribes. Unlike the first "Blood vs. Water" season, this season will have an all-new cast, and Redemption Island will not be in play.

Day Zero: A day before the actual game starts, the pairs will be sent out at sunset to different locations to live by themselves for the night. They will then all meet up to be officially welcomed by host Jeff Probst and start the game the next morning.

Exile Island: After an eleven season hiatus of the twist, Exile Island returns replacing the initial Redemption Island twist. This season's version of the twist would have its tribal Reward Challenges only be one-on-one duels between castaways. Before the tribe switch, however, the twist is that the ones that would face-off should be between loved ones. The winner of each duel wins reward for his/her tribe while the losing castaway would be sent to Exile Island, along with one of the winner's tribe mates, where they will choose between two urns: one with a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol buried on his/her camp, and the other with nothing.[11]

Tribe Switch: When there were 14 castaways left in the game, there was a tribe switch, putting four Hunahpu and three Coyopa castaways on each tribe.

Season Summary

Upon entering the season, the nine pairs of loved ones were separated onto two tribes: Coyopa and Hunahpu. Coyopa had a very rough start, losing three consecutive Immunity Challenges; while the tribe was initially dominated by the Coyopa Guys Alliance led by John Rocker, Josh Canfield was torn between allegiances to the men and perpetual target Baylor Wilson. After John verbally tussled with members of the other tribe after a challenge, Josh orchestrated John's ouster and blindsided him with help from Wes Nale and Alec Christy.

On Hunahpu, Jeremy Collins and Natalie Anderson, having lost their loved ones first, aligned. After a tribe swap, Missy Payne (Baylor's mother) came into power on Coyopa, while Josh and Jeremy vied for control on Hunahpu. While both men targeted each other, their conflict was never resolved after their tribe won all the challenges.

At the merge, two factions emerged: The Hunahpu Alliance, led by Jeremy, and the Coyopa Guys Alliance, now headed by Josh, with the dating couple Jon Misch and Jaclyn Schultz in the middle. While they prepared to side with Josh's alliance for the first post-merge Tribal Council, it was cancelled after Julie McGee quit the game, giving Jon and Jaclyn time to change their minds and side with Jeremy's alliance to eliminate Josh.

Jeremy's fortune was not to last, and he was blindsided by Jon's own Coyopa Pairs Alliance alliance, and with Natalie's help (turning the alliance into "Fab Five"), they resumed picking off the remnants of Josh's alliance, with Keith Nale as the last outsider remaining. However, Keith was spared as Natalie spearheaded Jon's elimination, leaving with a Hidden Immunity Idol in his pocket. While Keith survived the next Tribal Council after winning immunity, he lost the Final Immunity Challenge and was the last player voted out of the game.

Ultimately, Missy, Jaclyn, and Natalie became the Final Three. At the Final Tribal Council, Reed Kelly eviscerated Missy's character, comparing her to a "wicked stepmother", while Jaclyn was questioned for having only made moves with others, primarily Jon. Natalie was praised for making bold moves without a loved one's support and was ultimately awarded the title of Sole Survivor with five votes to win, compared to Jaclyn's two and Missy's one.

^1Jon and Keith used a Hidden Immunity Idol, negating 4 and 3 votes against them, respectively.^2The remaining five in the challenge, Baylor, Jaclyn, Jon, Missy and Natalie decided to forfeit the challenge and give the win to Missy.^3Natalie used her Hidden Immunity Idol on Jaclyn, negating 3 votes against her.

^1Tribal Council resulted in a tie. Per the rules, a second vote was held where the castaways involved in the tie would not vote and the remaining castaways could only vote for those involved in the tie.^2Julie quit the game, therefore voting for that episode was cancelled.^3A Hidden Immunity Idol was used, therefore all votes against the user were negated.

The removal of two castaways for medical reasons 48 hours before the start of the game resulted in an unbalanced cast, with ten males and eight females. This is the first season since Survivor: Fiji to have an uneven number of male and female contestants.

This is the first season to have castaways with homophonic first names (names that are pronounced the same, but spelled differently), namely John Rocker and Jon Misch. Coincidentally, both players were also voted out while having an unused Hidden Immunity Idol.

This is the first season to include a pair of twins.

This is the first season with all new players to follow another season with all new players since Survivor: Samoa.